Legal Office Hours
powered by Orrick
What?
Legal Office Hours is a monthly initiative providing students with access to professional legal guidance on common venture-related questions including intellectual property, founder relations, incorporation, and investment advice—whether you're at the idea stage or already building.
Where legal office hours bridge the gap in the Cambridge ecosystem:
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We connect student entrepreneurs with Orrick, a law firm specialised in startup practice, removing the barrier of legal uncertainty that often slows down early ventures.
Each session offers two hours of professional legal consultation, making expert advice accessible to students who wouldn't typically have access to specialised startup lawyers.
Our structured format ensures maximum reach, helping as many students as possible get the legal guidance they need to move forward confidently.
For whom?
Open to Cambridge students only upon prior registration.
Perfect for anyone on the entrepreneurial journey—from early ideas and concepts to proof-of-concepts and beyond
No incorporated company required—come with your questions at any stage
Format
Sessions happen once per month, starting in November
Slot bookings open 1-2 weeks before each session and will be announced via the E-Lab newsletter
You must register with a cam.ac.uk email address—other domains will be rejected
Each student receives one 15-minute consultation slot per session. Come prepared with streamlined questions to maximise your time
Beyond the Office Hours
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Building a venture means making legal decisions that shape your company's trajectory—sometimes immediately, often years down the line. Getting the fundamentals right early prevents costly mistakes and creates the foundation for everything that follows. Two resources to help you navigate this:
SeedSummit - Your library of core agreements. This European full-stack resource provides free, vetted legal document templates specifically for European startups (with a UK focus). Need a founders' agreement, advisor agreement, or term sheet? They've got you covered with documents that actually work in our context.
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Orrick's Founder Series - Now at its 34th edition, this series breaks down legal concepts that early-stage founders actually encounter. Think of it as your crash course in startup legal literacy—from understanding vesting schedules to navigating investment terms, delivered in bite-sized, digestible formats.
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The Office Hours are powered by:
Orrick advises nearly 5,000 venture-backed companies, including 100+ unicorns and 13 of the 25 largest public tech companies. Their recent work includes advising Anthropic on its $13B Series F at a $183B post-money valuation (plus all prior rounds), and Mistral AI's €1.7B Series C at an €11.7B valuation. They also work with the most active VCs, funds, and corporate venture arms.
The lawyers dedicating their time to these office hours bring experience across the full spectrum: venture capital, growth equity, PE and M&A (including cross-border deals), management buyouts, secondary transactions, and exits. They understand both the immediate questions you're facing and where your journey might lead.
Need more info?
Contact Zarja Hude.
